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Mike Dunleavy broke out for 30 against the Suns. (NBAE/Getty Images)

You could see it coming in bits and pieces, a few minutes here and there in the past couple of weeks, building the impression Mike Dunleavy was starting to look more like, well, Mike Dunleavy.

He put it all together Wednesday night, scoring 23 of his season-high 30 points in the second half to spark the Pacers' 122-114 comeback victory over the Phoenix Suns.

The Pacers trailed by 24 in the second quarter and 16 to start the second half but Dunleavy scored the team's first 11 points of the third quarter, including a pair of 3-pointers and a three-shot foul, sparking a 16-6 run that cut the lead to 77-70 and gave life to the rally.

"It was heaven-sent because at that time my shot wasn't really going and Mike came in, hit two or three threes, got some layups, some putbacks and he kept us going," said Danny Granger, who picked up where Dunleavy left off in the fourth quarter. "Then I got it going toward the fourth, so it was great for us."

Dunleavy isn't ready to make any bold "I'm back" pronouncements. For one thing, that's not his style. For another, he's been through too many ups, and even more downs, in this comeback process to make assumptions.

"Honestly, the shots I made didn't feel any better than the ones I've been missing, so I just continue to shoot," he said. "They'll either go in or they won't and I'll come back next night and do the same thing, take the same approach."

At worst, his big night was a significant signpost on his long road back.

Second big comeback was remarkable but was it historic?

We still don't know if the Pacers set some kind of record by rallying from deficits of at least 20 points twice in a row to win. The team's director of public information, David Benner, is still awaiting a response from the Elias Sports Bureau, which usually can tell you on a moment's notice what the 14th best third-quarter assist-turnover ratio is for left-handed point guards born after 3 p.m. on Wednesdays.

But it certainly made a big impression on the Pacers, who were struggling to explain their latest Jekyll-Hyde trend.

"You know what? I wish I knew," said Earl Watson. "If anyone knew, we'd try to do it every first half. It's like after 8 o'clock something turns on in our team. I don't know if it's the time of night or whatever. We can't keep doing that, especially on the road. We have to come out with more intensity as if we were already down 23 or 24 points and have that kind of mentality from the beginning."

In other words, the comeback was nice but they sure wish it wasn't necessary.

"We know we're never out of a game," said Granger. "We've gotten down a lot of times this season and haven't really fought back. These last two games we came back and now I think we have to figure out the formula of starting the game off in the correct fashion."

Nets intend to give Williams another chance

The immediate assumption, upon learning Shawne Williams had been included in the trade that sent Eduardo Najera from Dallas to New Jersey in exchange for Kris Humphries, was the former Pacers first-round pick was nothing more than a salary cap throw-in to balance the ledger.

Turns out, the Nets want to give him another chance on the court.

Though under contract to the Mavs, he had not been with the team for more than a year for reasons that have not been disclosed.

It remains to be seen if he'll be in uniform when the Pacers play in New Jersey Friday night, but Williams will be back on the court soon.

“I feel like I (haven’t) been in trouble in the last couple of years,” Williams told Dave D'Allesandro of the Newark Star-Ledger.. “I’m older now and I know how to act. I’m more mature, a professional now, so I’m not even worrying about that.”

The Nets have modest expectations.

“We’re not pulling any punches,” Coach Kiki Vandeweghe told the Star-Ledger. "We look at this as a second chance for (him) to revitalize your career and he was excited about it. He was, from what I remember in Indiana, a very talented kid. This is a great opportunity for him, a team that is building around young players that are talented and he’s another one of them.”